Happy Earth Day Weekend from Smith Micro!

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Smith Micro Blogger

Did you know Earth Day started 42 years ago?

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. The passage of the landmark Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and many other groundbreaking environmental laws soon followed. Growing out of the first Earth Day, Earth Day Network (EDN) works with over 22,000 partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world. (Courtesy the Earth Day Action Network)

How does your community celebrate Earth Day? What are you doing to celebrate the environment this weekend? Following our series of holiday greetings created in Anime Studio, Smith Micro is excited to present this Earth Day greeting that you can share with your family and friends.

Ready to make some greetings of your own? Or just ready to save some green? Earth Day brings you Green Savings and 22% off on all Smith Micro Software! To celebrate Earth Day, we are helping you save some green in your pocket. Get 22% off all Smith Micro software titles from now until midnight on Sunday 4/22/12. Simply use the coupon code: SAVESOMEGREEN when you checkout.

Super Smith Micro Software Deals at Amazon.com – Save over 75%!

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Smith Micro Blogger

If you act fast, you may be able to take advantage of some amazing Smith Micro Software deals at Amazon on Anime Studio, Manga Studio & more!

Manga Studio Debut 4 – Currently Only $11.99*

Anime Studio Debut 8 – Currently Only $11.99*

Anime Studio Pro 8 – Currently $69.99*

*Prices not guaranteed and subject to change without notice. International prices may vary.

That’s not all…you can also pick up some savings on Pixelmator, StuffIt Deluxe, SpongeBob Tooncast Studio, Poser 9 & a ton more products!

After you purchase, don’t forget to check out our Smith Micro Graphics Facebook Page and Twitter feed to join in the conversation, share your creations, and learn more about your new products!

Follow the Rainbow to a St. Patrick’s Day Animated Greeting Card & 50% Off Coupon

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Smith Micro Blogger

Share this St. Patrick’s Day animation made in Anime Studio with your friends and loved ones!

When you’re done watching, pick your four leaf clover: 50% OFF the Entire Smith Micro Store!

We’re celebrating St. Patrick’s day with a big sale at Smith Micro’s online store. Get 50% off all software titles from now until Sunday, March 18th. Simply use the coupon code: HOWLUCKY4U at checkout.

Our Silly Little Blog Art Contest Thing Rolls Into March Like a Lion

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Smith Micro Blogger

We want this blog to be about the fun of creating your own characters with cartoon software, or using 3D models to tell your digital story. Last month, the graphics web team decided we wanted to host a regular, but not very serious art contest in the blog to help liven things up around here. We just want to have fun creating art together, with a bunch of silly prizes and a silly theme where everyone who works with Poser, Manga Studio and Poser can join in together and make silly things.

We put out a call for you to create your own superheroes and a variety of entries flooded in with top candidates to save the world. We had an Anthro-Hedgehog with a light saber and one artist made their first attempt at drawing shoujo manga rather than their usual shounen style manga. We couldn’t believe how CREATIVE you all were.

It was really hard to pick a winner, but UK Manga Studio Artist 888toto (AKA Tony Allcock) stood out with the most votes from our staff! His hero Dart (below) comes with high jumping, gun toting, super-athletic skills and she can even read what you are thinking! Congratulations Tony! We’ll ship you out a package next week!

We picked two runners up, who will also be getting silly little packages of silly things to celebrate their super superhero status. Congratulations to artdude41 (Ashley Martin) and Neil King for your winning entries!

Synestra by ArtDude41, Created in Poser - She’s a member of the Black Avalon, and her powers include unlimited stamina, flight, magic, super strength and speed, as well as telepathy.

Technibod by Neil King, Created in Anime Studio – A new breed of super hero with the awesome power to fix computing problems.

There were actually TWO parts to the art challenge last month! We wanted to create here in the office too! The Smith Micro graphics staff in Watsonville tried to create a few bad guys for the superheroes to battle. (We learned this month that using food for a month long art project is possibly not a great idea…but we know for next time!) Will the world ever be safe when cork dinosaurs roam the earth?

Now that the world is safe with all these superheroes – What’s the March contest theme already?!

MARCH CONTEST THEME – BIRTHDAY PARTY
Content Paradise turns 7 on March 21st, and we’re going to celebrate! We want to see your birthday party inspired images and videos this month. Make us a card or make us a clown – but get your images in before the contest closes. We’ll send the winner(s) a box of fun party favors and maybe we’ll even save you a piece of cake!

Deadline: March 31, 2012 at Midnight, US Pacific Coast Time
Contest is open for the entire month of March.

ONE ENTRY PER PERSON

Submit your entry at the below link and make sure you tell us in the extra comments field that you are entering the MARCH CONTEST. Entries without this information will be excluded! Be Creative! http://my.smithmicro.com/gallery/

Artwork Submission Specification(s):
Artwork can be created in any version of Poser, Manga Studio or Anime Studio.
Images must be JPEG/JPG format (or compressed into a .zip archive), 800 pixels on the shortest side, maximum 80MB file size.
Animation formats accepted are SWF MOV MP3 MP4 WMV, minimum 320 pixels on shortest side, maximum 80MB file size and should be between 30-60 seconds.
All entries are subject to the Artwork Submission Terms & Conditions.

Anime Studio Animator Makes International News with “Bino and Fino” Cartoon

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Smith Micro Blogger

Hats off to Adamu Waziri for his “Bino and Fino” cartoon! Adamu was tired of African children watching only imported cartoons that didn’t reflect their lives, and he decided to do something about it. His creation “Bino and Fino” is a cartoon aimed at three to five year olds, about a brother and sister who live with their grandparents in an unnamed African city. Adamu uses Anime Studio to create and animate his Bino and Fino cartoon. Check out the article on CNN.com.

Here’s the Bino and Fino FB page: https://www.facebook.com/binoandfino
Here is Adamu’s FB page: http://www.facebook.com/adamuwaziri

Size Matters

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Smith Micro Blogger

Today’s post written by Steve Yatson, Sr. Director, Productivity & Graphics, Consumer Division

Almost weekly, I receive news in my inbox of yet another new handheld device — A tablet or a phone maybe. Things are moving and changing faster than ever. The demand, the buzz, and the questions continue to grow around these devices, while the desktop machine and the laptop are portrayed in the media as antiquated. As a maker of creative tools designed to be used on desktop machines, I’m constantly thinking about ways keep up and to adapt to this trend.

New devices aren’t yet powerful enough to offer that robust 3D creation and animation experience Poser and Anime Studio users have come to expect. There are many “creativity oriented” applications available for these devices but the features and scope tend to be limited when compared to their desktop counterparts. Many new apps I’ve tried that are primarily designed for the iPad may deliver an enjoyable consumer experience, but are not capable of delivering the results a graphics professional might need. I believe there is an expectation that the same experience and results can and should be delivered.

Combining this massive trend with the fact that software shelf space “Brick and Mortar” type retail is shrinking and we’ve had to adapt quickly. We’re seeing more and more requests for tablet versions of Poser, Anime Studio and Manga Studio. Bloggers, industry press, analysts, and especially customers tend to bring the conversation around to the question, “What’s your plan for tablets?” So how do we as tradition desktop toolmakers adapt to this changing landscape? How do we fit in?

At Smith Micro, we’ve taken the approach of adapting our technology to these new devices in a way that offers a different intended experience than the desktop. With Anime Studio, instead of attempting to mimic the functionality of that application on a tablet device, we decided to adapt the technology to an entirely different experience still related to animation. The simpler experience offers the ability to be creative and produce compelling results, but fits inside the current technical and physical confines of that device.

From that approach, Sock Puppets was born. Sock Puppets is a free iOS application based on Anime Studio technology that is a basic animation tool. It’s simple and fun, yet it’s still a creative tool powerful enough to be used to educate children on basic dialogue and basic animation. Our first attempt at adapting to new devices has been a great success and we hope to apply that same philosophy to all of our products moving forward.

As handheld devices get more powerful and better connected, we hope to be able to offer cutting edge products that are not just $1 one-off impulse buys. As hardware progresses to the point that we can offer Poser and Anime Studio and Manga Studio on these desktops in a manner that mimics the desktop, we certainly will.

Share this Digital Valentine with your Friends

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Smith Micro Blogger

We love our creative users! Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and we had this animation created in Anime Studio just for you to share with your friends and family!

Happy Valentine’s Day (a little early!)

Created with Anime Studio: http://anime.smithmicro.com
Direction and animation: Víctor Paredes
Design: Mario Quiñones
Sound: Pedro Santa Cruz

2011 Wrap – Another Great Year of Products and People

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Smith Micro Blogger

Wait…It’s Already February?

Okay, we know we’re a little late with the year end review, but wanted to squeeze it in anyway. With 2012 officially underway, the team here at Smith Micro wanted to still take a moment to highlight our favorite moments and accomplishments from 2011.

On the product front, new versions of both the Anime Studio and the Poser product lines were developed and launched with great success. Both products included ground breaking new features, causing excitement from both established and new users.

Anime Studio included a new character wizard, as well as helpful new features like automatic image tracing, Photoshop import and global rendering. Anime Studio has quickly become a hit with everyone from industry pros and hobbyists to kids and families.

For the first time ever Smith Micro released a Debut version of the Poser program (later to be released at the Mac App Store), introducing first-time users to the intriguing world of 3D creation. We did not stop there. Later in 2011 Smith Micro released both Poser 9 and Poser Pro 2012 to eager 3D enthusiasts. The new Poser line included Realtime OpenGL previews, vertex weight mapping, weight map creation tools, subsurface scattering and according to Poser’s long-time product manager Steve Cooper, “a boatload of UI improvements.”

This was a big launch for community involvement! In additional some masterful forum assistance in the presales campaign from our Poser Ambassadors, we hosted the first “Iron Render Championship” for the Poser Pro 2012 hero image and were honored to have Syyd Raven and Traveler selected as our winners. We were very thankful for everyone’s help!

Along with the new and updated products the team here at Smith Micro had a very eventful year at tradeshows. Here are some of our favorites from 2011:

We attended Anime Expo for the first time ever over July 4th weekend. Our team got to participate in a panel speaking on the “2D Animation Revolution” that packed in fans, artists and convention-goers.
One of our favorite conventions that we attend every year is Comic-Con in beautiful San Diego. For the second year in a row we had a great booth in the corner of the convention center. This year we had signings at our booth with some of our favorite artists that use Manga Studio, including Dave Gibbons, Doug Tenapel, Ethan Nicolle and Skottie Young.
We also had another very special visitor appear at the Smith Micro SDCC booth – Sponge Bob SquarePants came and hung out with our team to celebrate the release of the SpongeBob SquarePants Tooncast Studio.
To kick off the Poser launch we headed up north to beautiful Vancouver, Canada to attend SIGGRAPH 2011.
We also attended New York Comic-Con. Nothing like Comic-Con craziness in the Big Apple!

To close out the year, Anime Studio animator Andy Eaton won the Smith Micro holiday card contest. He took home $500 and was able to giveaway $500 to his charity of choice.

Thank you 2011 for being such a great year for Smith Micro and our software – looking forward to another fast paced, crazy year of new products, great artists and fun times.

Have You Ever Wanted to Fly?

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Smith Micro Blogger

What if you could be a superhero? What would your super power be? Would you giggle and fly or be serious and slay dragons? Now’s the time to make your dream happen (digitally at least!) Smith Micro wants you to create your very own superhero in this month’s image contest.

We’re not looking for the ordinary cape and tights guy, we want to see your imagination go wild in your best Poser, Manga Studio or Anime Studio creation. We will select our single favorite from all the entries!

What happens if your superhero is selected as the most hero-est of the heroes? We don’t want to give away too much, but we promise a box full of goodies to be delivered to the house of the winner, sure to leave you FEELING super at least! (We’ll announce and contact the winner within one week of the end of the month to get more information.)

(Image by Kevin Mall)

Deadline: February 29, 2012 at Midnight, US Pacific Coast Time
Contest is open for the entire month of February. (This month even has an EXTRA day since it’s leap year – but don’t forget, it’s still only 29 days, so get your entries in early!)

Submit your entry at the below link and make sure you enter your superhero name and tell us what your super power is in the Additional Credit field. Entries without this information will be excluded! Be Creative!
http://my.smithmicro.com/gallery/

(Image by Teyon Alexander)

And the Winner is… Smith Micro’s Holiday Card Contest

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Smith Micro Blogger

Isn’t the Holiday season the best? There are two things we love here at Smith Micro – the first is a good old fashion art contest. We loving seeing what you, the users are creating with our programs. The second thing we adore is the holiday season. Put them both together and we get downright warm and fuzzy.

Earlier in the month our team announced a Holiday Card Contest encouraging Anime Studio, Manga Studio and Poser artists to submit a digital greeting made with one of our great programs. We asked entrants to propose a design for Smith Micro’s own holiday greeting with the words “Happy Holidays” as the text. In the true act of holiday giving we wanted to not just reward the winner with a $500 gift card but also donate $500 to a charity of the winner’s choice.

Drumroll please . . . The winner of the Smith Micro Holiday Card Contest is Andy Eaton from Sugar Hill, Georgia. Andy used Anime Studio to create Winter Wonderland, a 30 second digital greeting featuring a snowball-throwing antagonist. Andy selected the Atlanta Children’s Shelter as his charity of choice. Both Andy and the Atlanta Children’s Shelter will be getting $500 from Smith Micro this holiday season.

We also wanted to be sure and say thanks to everyone that took the time to enter. We appreciate your hard work and holiday creativity. Below are a few of our other favorite entries…